Growing in Life unto Maturity to be Formed as an Army to Fight the Spiritual Warfare

As believers in Christ we love God, pursue Him, seek to know Him, desire to experience Him in a deeper way, and care more for His interests than for our need. The more time we spend with God, the more we enjoy and experience Christ as the reality of all the furnishings in the tabernacle, the more we care for God’s heart’s desire and His need than for our need.

One of the deepest experiences that we can have of Christ before God is at the golden incense altar, where the ascended Christ is constantly interceding, and where we can enter into His interceding life.

At the golden altar we are no longer focused on our need and our situation; here we are terminated, we are simply one with Christ, and we echo on earth the prayers that Christ is uttering in the heavens. Here, at the incense altar, we focus on God’s need and care for God’s interests; here we realize that God has a move, an economy, and an administration, but He’s not welcome on earth anywhere, and therefore He needs an army who is qualified and trained to cooperate with Him for the furtherance of His move on earth.

At the incense altar we pray for God’s move, and the result is the formation of an army (see Exo. 30:1-16). The more we spend time with the Lord to pray for what’s on His heart, the more we pray for an army to be formed to fight for God’s interests on earth.

And the key point for this army to be formed is not “skills in battle” or “perfecting training” but maturity in life: only those over twenty years old and males were qualified to be part of the army. This means that we need to pray for the growth in life of the saints so that they would be strong in spirit to be formed as the army.

What is your spiritual age? We may be saved for many years, but what is our spiritual age, the measure of our growth in life? Have we reached the spiritual age of twenty so that we may be formed into the army? There’s a desperate need, even an urgent need for us to pray for the growth in life of the saints so that they would be formed into the army the Lord needs to accomplish His purpose and further His move.

Growing in Life unto Maturity to be Formed as an Army to Fight the Spiritual Warfare

Only those males over twenty years old were qualified to be formed as the army to fight for God on earth, and only they could pay the half shekel and be part of the army (see Exo. 30:14). The spiritual significance of the age of the males qualified to be in the army is that, if we would be in the army to fight for God’s move, we need maturity in life.

We need to leave aside the childish things, the word of the beginning of Christ, and not again lay a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith in God, and we need to be brought on to maturity (Heb. 5:14-6:1). The enemy knows that all he has to do to hinder the formation of the army is to interfere with the growth in life of the saints and distract them.

Who prays and travails for their growth in life and for the growth of the saints unto maturity? Who fights in prayer day and night for the new ones to grow in life, for the saints to be growing in life unto maturity, and for many to reach the spiritual age of twenty so that the army would be formed?

Who intercedes for the saints, the elders, the serving saints, and for the believers in general to grow in life unto maturity? Who knows the stratagem of the enemy to stop and hinder the growth in life and says one with the Lord,

Satan, NO MORE! You oppose us, you try your best to hinder our growth in life, but this stops right here! As the army being formed by God, we will crush you! We fight that the saints would grow in life and their growth will be without hindrance!

On the one hand, we all need to grow in life unto maturity and reach the spiritual age of twenty to be qualified to be in God’s army; on the other hand, we need to be one with Christ in His prayer life to pray for the saints and intercede for them to be growing in life unto maturity and be formed as God’s army.

Some saints may be afraid to be “drafted into God’s army” and so they are passive, not really interested to contact the Lord and grow in life; they are like those young people who are afraid to be drafted into the army and so they decide they won’t grow up.

We need to pray that the saints would give the Lord their best cooperation to grow in life and no longer be children or teenagers in the Lord but be those over twenty years of age who are qualified to pay the half-shekel of silver and be drafted into God’s army!

The only ones qualified to be drafted and formed into God’s army are those who have a certain measure of growth in life unto maturity; only those who are over twenty years of age spiritually and are strong in spirit can fight the spiritual warfare.

Being a male spiritually doesn’t mean being a brother but it means to be strong in spirit and mature in the divine life to be qualified to be formed into an army to fight for God’s interests and move on earth. In order for us to be in the army to fight for God’s move, we need to be strong in spirit and grow in the divine life unto maturity until we come to the spiritual age of twenty (Eph. 4:15).

The maturity in life required for being formed into the army is not unreachable – maturity is a matter of growth in life, and we all are int he process of maturation; at twenty, this is the entrance, and it is not unattainable!

Lord Jesus, for the sake of Your move and interests on earth, cause us to grow in life unto maturity to be qualified to be formed into the army You need to fight for Your move! Lord, we stand against the stratagems of the enemy and we fight for our growth in life and for the growth in life unto maturity of the saints! May nothing hinder our growth in life! We want to stay in the process of maturation, the process of growth in life unto maturity to be formed as God’s army fighting the spiritual warfare!

There’s a Desperate Need for us to Grow, Reach Maturity, and be Formed into an Army

It is sad and even tragic when a child does not grow in life in a normal way but his growth stops at a certain age; spiritually speaking, it is sad and even tragic when we or the saints stop growing in the divine life.

On the one hand, the Lord as the Spirit works in our environment and in our being to transform us by metabolically changing our being through the addition of His element and the removal of our old element. On the other hand, we need to arrive to maturity by being filled with the divine life which transforms us.

This following quote from the Life-study of Genesis really helps us understand this matter better,

Jacob’s history must also become our biography. We must believe that everything in our daily life is under God’s sovereign hand. Everything that happened to Jacob was for his transformation and maturity. In order to be transformed, Jacob had to be pressed into situations that gave him no choice except to undergo a change. Like Jacob, after we have been changed, God will sovereignly use persons, things, and events to empty us of everything that has filled us and to take away every preoccupation so that we may have an increased capacity to be filled with God. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 1199-1200)

Many of the Lord’s loving seekers can testify that the Lord is faithful to use persons, things, and events to empty them from everything that has filled them, and to take away every preoccupation, so that they would have an increased capacity to be filled with the divine life that transforms them.

There’s a desperate need for growth unto maturity in the church life in the Lord’s recovery today; there’s an urgent need for more of us to grow, reach maturity, and thereby become qualified to be formed into an army (see Heb. 6:1; Phil. 3:15).

The more we know and experience the Lord, the more we should be growing in life; the more we enjoy the Lord and take Him as our life and person, the more we should grow unto maturity. Our reaching maturity to a certain degree qualifies us to be formed with others into the army, that is, to be coordinated, fitted, and built up together into the army God needs to fight the spiritual warfare.

There’s no limit as to how old you can be: Caleb was as young and full of strength at 85 years old as he was when he was young, and he fought and took the land, destroying the giants. We need to have the same kind of spirit as Caleb had, being one with the Lord to destroy God’s enemies and being in the process of maturation to be formed into an army.

The intercession offered at the incense altar is for the growth and maturity of the believers so that an army can be formed (Eph. 4:13; 6:10-12). The more we pray one with Christ and in oneness with the saints at the incense altar, the more we realize that there’s a desperate need for the saints to grow in life unto maturity, and we will see the urgency to pray for the growth in life of all the saints (1 Cor. 2:6; 3:1-2; 14:20; 16:13).

Whether the saints are young or old physically, whether the saints have been in the church life for a short or a long time, we need to pray for one another to grow in life unto maturity!

We shouldn’t “wait for a feeling” before we start praying for the saints; we should just begin to pray in oneness with the Lord, and His feeling will become our feeling, and we will see the immense universal need for growth in life unto maturity of the saints for the formation of the army.

Only when such an army is formed will God be able to move on earth for His purpose; apart from an army formed of mature ones, there’s no way for God to move (Eph. 4:13; 6:10-12).

We simply need to begin to pray in oneness with the Lord and we will tap into the prayer that will motivate God to release the growth in life of the saints for the formation of the army He needs on earth.

Lord Jesus, thank You for using persons, things, and events to empty us from everything that has filled us so that we may have an increased capacity to be filled with Your divine life that is transforming us. Lord, grow in us unto maturity more today. Cause us to see the desperate need for maturity among the saints, and release the prayers that You need for the growth in life unto maturity. Lord, gain an army formed of mature ones so that You may have a free way to move and accomplish Your interest on earth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 154 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 8 (week 32), The Expiation Silver for the Formation of an Army to Fight for God’s Interests and Move on Earth.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # God will sovereignly / Use persons, things and events to empty us / Of everything that has filled us / And to take away every preoccupation / So that we may have / An increased capacity / To be filled with God, / To be filled with God. / So that we may have / An increased capacity / To be filled with God, / To be filled with God. (Song on being filled with God)
  # Thy anointing Spirit / Me shall permeate, / All my soul and spirit / Thou wouldst saturate; / Every part transforming / Till conformed to Thee, / Till Thy life shall bring me / To maturity. (Hymns #841)
  # Grow in me; grow in me; / For the Body grow in me, / Through the rich dispensing of Your life supply; / For the Body grow in me. (Song on Growing in Life)